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Bobby Knight throws chair for charity

Trish Choate, Special to the Times Record News
Published 7:51 p.m. CT Jan. 19, 2018

Retired Texas Tech basketball coach Bobby Knight threw the folding chair he's signing while Lynn Landrum of Burkburnett holds it steady for him March last year at the Circle Bar Ranch in Truscott, Texas. The chair was auctioned off Jan. 13 at the Wichita County Junior Livestock Show to benefit the two young daughters of Heath Wayne Hodges.(Photo: Photo/Courtesy)

The story of the folding chair brings some lightness to a tough time for Hodges’ friends and family. Knight gave the chair its comeuppance last March while attending the Veterans Helicopter Weekend, a hog hunt for veterans at the Circle Bar Ranch in Truscott. Lynn Landrum of Burkburnett asked Knight, a famed Indiana Hoosiers coach, to autograph a metal chair.

“Before he signed it he said, ‘Let’s make this official,’ and he threw it across the floor and then gathered it back up,” Barry Mahler, eyewitness and Wichita County Precinct 3 commissioner, said.

By all accounts, the throw wasn’t overly vigorous.

“He just threw it across the room. He didn’t want to hurt nobody,” Wichita County Precinct 2 Commissioner Lee Harvey said.

In 1985, a furious Knight hurled a folding chair across the court during a Hoosier game against Purdue.

Knight racked up three technical fouls and himself was thrown out five minutes into the Big Ten game. The powers that be piled on the fouls when Knight cursed, heaved the chair and argued with officials. He became incensed over fouls called on his players. Purdue won, 72-63.

Chair chucking only added to the legend of “The General,” and the incident is immortalized on YouTube.

Wichitan Denny Bishop, an Indiana Basketball Hall of Famer, has seen Knight angry but only on TV.

“I had a lot of admiration for his knowledge as a coach and his ability to get his team to perform,” Bishop said.

Bishop grew up playing high school basketball in Indiana while Knight played in Ohio. He went on to play at the University of Houston and became an NCAA official. He met Knight while refereeing at the Rainbow Classic in Honolulu during Christmastime in 1974. Bishop officiated in three Hoosier games in a row.

The coach and the referee got along fine, and Knight has since spoken highly of Bishop.

“If he thought that you were capable and well versed in what you were doing, he was pretty much going to leave you alone,” Bishop said. “But if he thought you had a soft spot or an Achilles' heel, you better watch out because he was probably going to point it out to you.”

As for other teams: “You better get ready to play because his team was going to be ready,” Bishop said.

Knight had high standards for everyone from referees to players to the press.

“He demanded excellence from his team, and he wanted excellence from the officiating crew,” Bishop said.

When Knight tossed the chair in March, there weren’t any specific plans for the chair.

But after Hodges' death left his friends and family bereft, it become clear what it was meant for.

Hodges died Dec. 30 in an officer-involved shooting in Crowell. A report on the shooting is pending from law-enforcement officials. Texas Rangers are assisting the Foard County Sheriff’s Department in the investigation, and the officer involved was put on administrative leave. He was not injured in the incident.

Whatever happened that night, Hodges’ friends miss him and want to help his daughters. Manager of Quality Implement Co. in Burkburnett, Hodges was well known and liked in agriculture circles. He was an active member of Faith Baptist Church in Iowa Park.

Texas Tech graduate Kurt Hinkle’s way of helping out was to buy the chair.

“I’ve known Heath Hodges for close to 20 years, and it was just a way to show appreciation to his family,” Hinkle of Iowa Park said. “And, of course, the money’s going to a good cause.”